The Secret to Lived-In Waves

Somewhere between the Kim Kardashian and the Gisele is the Chrissy Teigen—the perfectly smooth, not too messy, not too glossy cool-girl waves we've been waiting for. T3 stylist David Lopez tells us how to get them.

Somewhere between the Kim Kardashian and the Gisele is the Chrissy Teigen—the perfectly smooth, not too messy, not too glossy cool-girl waves we've been waiting for. T3 stylist David Lopez tells us how to get them.

PREP

Work volumizing serum (like Kevin Murphy Anti Gravity) through damp hair and blow-dry it smooth with a nylon or boar-bristle paddle brush. If your hair is superfine, use a lightweight thickening spray (like Nexxus Hydra-Light Weightless Moisture Root Lift Mist) instead. Or if your hair is curly, use a boar-bristle round brush to pull it semistraight.

CURL RIGHT (AND LEFT)

If your hair is longer than your collarbone, pick up a one-inch iron; short-haired ladies should opt for a one-and-a-quarter-inch barrel to avoid Shirley Temple spirals (T3 Whirl Trio Interchangeable Styling Wand has both sizes). And this is really important: When you wrap a one-inch piece of hair around the barrel, start at different levels around the midlength, leaving out the first few inches from the roots and the last few inches from the ends. "One section you'll start right at the middle; the next section you might start a few inches from the root," says Lopez.

SWITCH DIRECTIONS

So that the effect doesn't veer too Veronica Lake (a pretty look, but not this one), Lopez recommends alternating direction with every curl. You can also switch up the size of sections of hair your grab." Make every third piece a little bit smaller or bigger than the last," he says.

MIND THE GAP

The defining characteristic of cool-girl hair? A center part. "A side part immediately makes you look like you did your hair," explains Lopez. "Don't do a clean center part; make it look a little more messy—that's the key to making it look as natural as possible." And take the part back only a few inches or it can make your hair look flat.

It's easy to achieve tousled texture by leaving your ends out, but what if they're due for a trim? Instead of sealing them with a flatiron, Lopez likes to take a large-barrel curling iron, like the T3 BodyWaver 1.75" Styling Iron, and "just barely touch the ends [with it] to give a little bit of polish to them." Then run some lightweight styling oil (like MarulaOil Rare Oil Treatment) through them until you can get to the salon.